University of Virginia Library

4659. LIBELS, Punishment for.—

I might
have filled the courts of the United States
with actions for slanders, and have ruined,
perhaps many persons who are not innocent.
But this would be no equivalent for the loss
of character. I leave them, therefore, to the
reproof of their own consciences. If these do
not condemn them, there will yet come a
day when the false witness will meet a Judge
who has not slept over his slanders.—
To Uriah M'Gregory. Washington ed. iv, 333.
(M. 1800)